The Stable Boy

by Stalter, Harmony

  “Okay,” she said as I climbed out of the truck. Mr. Deabring was coming out of the store.

  “I saw you pull up,” he said. “Thank you, Claire.”

  “You are welcome,” I said.

  “I hope you didn’t go to too much trouble.”

  “For you, not in the least,” I said, smiling.

  “Thank you, again,” he said, hugging me. “Where are you ladies off to?”

  “Shopping,” I said.

  “You girls have fun,” he said waving at Alison. She waved back. I climbed back in the truck.

  “What did you give him?” she asked.

  “My pear pancakes,” I said.

  “You didn’t eat any?”

  “No, I just had enough time to make them, then headed out the door.”

  “Ah, no wonder you are hungry,” she said.

  “Yes, now back to my brother and his love for you,” I said with a chuckle.

  “He has always had his hopes up,” she said as well pulled into the diner parking lot.

  “Yes, he has. I don’t think his crush has ever waivered.”

  “That is bad,” she said walking through the door to the diner.

  “What is bad?” asked Vanessa.

  “Her brother still having a crush on me?”

  “That is awesome,” said Vanessa. “How is Mike and when did you start speaking to him again?”

  “He is good and it has only been a couple of days.”

  “Good, I am glad to hear it.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “I am happy to be back in touch with both of my siblings. It was too long before I spoke to them. I just did not know what to say.”

  “That is understandable, but you seem to be happier lately. Does our mutual friend have anything to do with that?”

  “No,” I said. Alison shook her head yes.

  “He is a great guy,” said Vanessa. “It would be hard to find another like him.”

  “Speaking from experience?” Alison asked.

  “Eww, no way, he is like my little brother. I watched him grow up. I am proud of the way he turned out. He was a little trouble maker when he first got here, but his grandparents straightened him out. He grew up right and isn’t too hard on the eyes either.”

  “Isn’t that the truth,” Alison said. “You do realize he could pass for Christian Kane’s twin , right?”

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  “He does look like him. We have to get a better look in Saturday,” Vanessa said.

  “Yes, we will,” said Alison.

  “So what are you ladies up to today?”

  “Retail therapy,” I said. “What time do you get off?”

  “I will be done here after breakfast. It was supposed to be my day off, but Angie called and said she was going to be late. She will be here by eleven.”

  “Care to join us?”

  “Why not? I could use some new clothes for Saturday.”

  “Great,” said Alison. “We are headed to the mall. Call my phone when you get there, we will meet up and do some damage to our credit cards.”

  “That sounds like a plan to me,” Vanessa said. “What can I get you ladies? You look like you need some strong coffee, Claire.”

  “I am trying to get it out of her, but all she says is she had a restless night.”

  “I am sure it was,” Vanessa said with a smile.

  “You both suck,” I said, rolling my eyes. “You know I have never had a full nights sleep since John’s passing.”

  “I am sure your nights are really sleepless now,” said Alison, laughing.

  “You are horrible,” said Vanessa with a laugh.

  “I agree,” I said.

  “I have to live vicariously through you,” Alison said. “I can only hope it is as kinky as I would hope it to be with him.”

  “Oh my God,” I said, face becoming red.

  “Oh, so it looks as though it is,” said Vanessa. “Move over Alison, now I want to know.”

  “I am not telling you two anything,” I said.

  “We will get her drunk enough on Saturday to spill the beans,” said Vanessa. “I am definitely driving that night.”

  “Yes, that is going to be great. Maybe she can give us tips on spicing things up with our others.”

  “Maybe,” said Vanessa. I shook my head. I knew today was going to be one of those days.

  “I will take that strong coffee with the Western Scramble without the ham, and rye toast, please?” I said, trying to avoid the questioning.

  “Okay, okay,” Vanessa said. “But we will get it out of you.”

  “I’ll have the same thing she is having,” said Alison. “And Vanessa is right, we will get it out of you.”

  “I knew I was going to regret going out with the two of you,” I said, placing my head in my hands.

  “You of all people should know better. We know when you are lying to us and when we have hit the nail on the head.”

  “I know,” I said. “Vanessa, he cannot know that you suspect anything, yet. It is bad enough my brother guessed over the phone and this one here just encourages him.”

  “I promise he will not know anything. I will let him come to me and tell me when he is ready. I am sure the other girls at the party also sensed something between the two of you just by the way he was looking at you and leaned in for a kiss. Yes, I saw that.”

  “Shit. I was hoping no one noticed. Angelica did, but I am not sure about Susie or Stacie. I guess we will find out come Saturday.”

  “Yes, we will,” said Vanessa. “I am going to put your orders in. Here comes Angie, which means I may get out earlier than expected.”

  “Good, join us for breakfast, too,” said Alison.

  “I will do that,” she said. She brought us our coffee sat down with us.

  “Why don’t you ride with us? We can go drop off your car on the way and we can all just go in my truck.”

  “Okay,” she said as Angie brought all of our food. “I am sorry about this morning, Vanessa.”

  “That is no problem, Angie. You are here now, which allows me the rest of the day to spend with my girls doing a little retail therapy.”

  “Oh, that sounds fun,” she said.

  “I am sure it will be,” Vanessa said. We ate our breakfast, drank our coffee, paid the check and left. I followed Vanessa to her house. She parked her car and climbed in the double cab truck. We headed to the next town over. The posters for the concert were in all the store fronts. We knew we were going to have to get here early just to get in the door. “What store are we hitting first?”

  “Which ever one has the good sales,” Alison said.

  “Just like it used to be,” I said.

  “Yes, it is,” said Alison with a smile. We climbed out of the truck and headed for the main entrance. Walking into the mall hit me like a ton of bricks. I had not been this happy and shopping in this mall since the day before John’s accident. The girls saw me stop short. “Hey, are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I will be fine. It is just a memory coming back to slap me in the face.”

  “The day before,” she said with a sigh. “I completely forgot. I am so sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “It will pass. Let’s get some new outfits.”

  “A shopping we will go,” she said, laughing. Vanessa and I laughed with her. We headed to the center aisle of the mall all of our arms hooked into each others. There were sales in every store. The storefronts all boasted twenty to fifty percent off of everything.

  “Where do we begin,” I said.

  “Let’s go left,” said Alison. We headed in the direction she chose. The first store we hit we all found something we liked, but in true Alison fashion she did not get it. We had more shopping to do. We passed by a lingerie store. “I think we need to go in there.”

  “Okay,” Vanessa said. We went in. Alison began picking out different things and holding them up to me.

  “I think you need to get this,” sh
e said to me.

  “I don’t need that,” I said.

  “Well you need something. You have a new man and I think it will look cute on you.”

  “I do just fine without the lingerie. Thank you very much.”

  Her and Vanessa gave each other a look. ‘What did I just do,’ I thought.

  “You do just fine, do you?” asked Alison.

  “I think I might have stepped in it,” I said to Vanessa.

  “Yes, you did,” she said. “Is that the reason you look so tired, today?”

  “No, I told you. I had a restless night,” I said.

  “How many times do we have to tell you that you are a horrible liar?” asked Alison.

  “Okay, okay, maybe,” I said.

  “We know it is exactly why you are tired. There is no maybe about it,” said Vanessa. I shook my head.

  “I am not getting out of this line of questioning, am I?”

  “Not until you tell us at least one detail,” said Alison.

  “What is it with you and wanting to know the details?” I said. Vanessa laughed.

  “Boredom? I don’t know. My mind works differently than yours. I just like to know,” Alison answered with a grin.

  “What type of detail are you looking to find out, so we can move past this and get back to shopping?”

  “Let me think,” Alison said, looking through the clothes on the circular rack. “Now, I have seen the boy with his shirt off from afar, so I know that he looks good, but does he look that good completely naked?”

  “Oh my God,” I said, looking at Vanessa, face reddening. Vanessa was laughing so hard she was holding her side.

  “Come on, it is an innocent enough question. It is not like I asked you how big his junk was. And I am sure Vanessa wants to know what he looks like naked. Don’t you dare say you have never thought of it, Vanessa.”

  “I can’t breathe,” Vanessa whispered with tears streaming down her face. I was laughing along with her. Just the way Alison so nonchalantly said it while looking through the rack of clothing caught me off guard.

  “Well, are you going to answer the question or what?”

  “Okay, I will answer,” I said catching my breath. “Yes, he does look that good naked.”

  “Thank you,” Alison said. “Now was that so hard?”

  “No, but I know you better than that. That is not all you want to know.”

  “No, it isn’t but I will take my time and get all the dirty details out of you one innocent question at a time,” she said with a grin.

  “You better run now, Claire,” said Vanessa.

  “I know,” I said. “Am I going to regret Saturday?”

  “I promise to behave,” said Alison.

  “Yeah right,” Vanessa and I said. We all laughed. We moved on to the next store. We all tried on a few outfits. Vanessa found herself a black dress with a red band around the waist that cinched it in, fitting her perfectly. I purchased a red dress with a black lace overlay that had roses throughout it. Alison was able to find something she purchased. She bought a simple little black dress. We all bought new shoes to go with our dresses. Alison and Vanessa both bought black heels. I purchased a pair of red ones. We had our outfits for Saturday, but we were far from done shopping. We hit every store in the mall before we left. It was fun for me to just window shop. I was never one to purchase more than I wanted or needed. We laughed as we tried on huge hats. It was a couple of hours before we left the mall and headed home. We dropped Vanessa off first. I pulled into Alison’s driveway. Bob came out to get her bags.

  “Hey there, Claire,” he said.

  “How are you, Bob?”

  “I am good. How much damage did she do today?”

  “That is something you will have to talk to her about.”

  “I was afraid of that,” he said, laughing.

  “How well do you know your wife?”

  “Yeah, I know,” he said.

  “Thank you for a great day,” Alison said to me.

  “You are welcome. I am sure Saturday will be even better.”

  “Oh you know it will be,” she said with a raise of the eyebrows. I laughed as she climbed out of the truck. “Go get yourself some sleep, young lady.”

  “I plan on it,” I said.

  “Some how, I doubt it will happen.”

  “Shut up,” I said. “I will talk to you tomorrow.”

  “Okay, love you,” she said, beginning to walk toward her house.

  “Love you, too,” I shouted out the window, backing down her driveway. I drove the half mile to my house. I pulled in the driveway to see Josh setting up the table on the porch.

  “Hey,” he said. “You are just in time.”

  “Did you make dinner?” I asked getting out of the truck.

  “I did,” he said. “It is such a nice night out. I thought we could eat out here.

  “Sounds good, just let me go put this away,” I said.

  “Do I get to see what it is?”

  “It is only a dress and a pair of shoes,” I said. “Nothing spectacular, just something new.”

  “Then I can wait to see you in it on Saturday,” he said.

  “Okay,” I said with a smile. I kissed his cheek and went inside. The house smelled wonderful. Whatever he had made was filling the house with its enticing aroma. I went up the stairs and hung the dress up. I looked at it and smiled. I was finally ready for this. It had been a long two years, but I was finally in a place where I thought I could be with friends and family again. I went back down stairs. I walked out onto the porch. Josh was just setting the food on the table.

  “I have something to tell you,” he said.

  “What’s up,” I said.

  “I finally figured out a name for the calf.”

  “What did you decide on?”

  “Cassie,” he said. “She even comes when I call her.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “I tried a couple of different names, but she would not come until I called her Cassie.”

  “That is great,” I said, laughing. “Mr. Deabring said it would come to you.”

  “Yup, now she has a name.”

  “Good, I will register her after dinner.”

  “Then it will be official,” he said, smiling.

  “It sure will be.”

  “How was your day?”

  “Interesting,” I said with a laugh.

  “Anything good happen?”

  “Vanessa ended up going shopping with us.

  “That is great. How is she?”

  “She is good. Her and Alison put a hurting on their credit cards today.”

  “Poor, Bob,” said Josh.

  “My thoughts exactly,” I said. He laughed.

  “Oh, your brother’s invitation came today. At least that is what I think it is. I’ll be right back,” he said, getting up from the table. He came back with this black envelope addressed to me. The return address was for Montana, but with no name on it. I opened it. It was the invitation. On the RSVP card it said to Claire and Guest. I smiled. “Is that what it is?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I have no idea as to why it is in a black envelope though. That is just odd.”

  “I thought so, too,” he said. “Is it a black tie affair or is that the color of the wedding?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I will have to ask him when we talk on Sunday. What is this that I am eating? It is delicious.”

  “Family secret recipe. Grandma passes it down to me. I was sworn to secrecy and I must obey. I can only pass the recipe along to other family members. Maybe, one day I could pass it along to you.”

  “That is so unfair,” I said.

  “I know,” he said, smiling. “I even made dessert.”

  “You did?”

  “Yes, I made grandma’s cheesecake. I hope you don’t mind, but I did use the rest of the pears you had for the topping.”

  “Not at all, I can always walk to the orchard and ge
t more if I need them. How were the pancakes?”

  “Delicious. I put the rest in the freezer.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “You’re welcome,” he said. We finished eating our dinner and he cleared the plates. “Are you ready for dessert?”

  “Sure,” I said. He brought out the cheesecake. He had arranged the pear slices fanned out on the top. I did not know if I wanted to eat it or take a picture of it. “It looks beautiful.”

  “Thanks,” he said with a laugh. “That is how grandma used to do it. It is the only way I know how to decorate a cheesecake.”

  “That is great,” I said, smiling.

  “How big of a slice would you like, love?” he asked.

  “Not very big,” I said.

  “I can understand,” he said. “Cheesecake can lay a bit heavy.”

  “Yes, but it is so sinfully delicious.”

  “Yes, it is. That is the best part,” he said. He sliced of a small slice for the both of us. The first forkful I could taste the vanilla. The silky texture just melted in my mouth. I was in heaven. John could not make a pot of spaghetti properly, but Josh could cook high end restaurant quality food. It was not something I was used to, but I could get used to it.

  “I have never been able to make a cheesecake like this,” I said.

  “It is a learned art,” he said with a smile. The phone rang. “I’ll get it. You continue to eat..”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Hey Alison,” I heard him say. “How was your day? I am glad to hear it. Yeah, she is here. Hang on and I will bring the phone to her.”

  “Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”

  “Did you get your invitation?”

  “Yes, I am going to assume you did.”

  “I did,” she said. “That is why I am calling.”

  “Was yours in a black envelope?”

  “No, mine was a lavender color. Was yours?”

  “Yes, it is just weird. Maybe the colors are black and lavender?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Could be.”

  “I will have to find out on Sunday when I talk to him.”

  “Have you had dinner, yet?”

  “We just finished.”

  “So did we. Bob wanted to know if you guys wanted to come over and watch a movie with us?”

  “I’ll ask,” I said.